Keen interest in the school needs of Bingham township brought between 75 and 100 citizens to White Cross Monday morning to advise the county school board upon a site for the new township school. the choice lay between a tract of 8 ½ acres already owned by the county and a tract half a mile further east offered by Lueco Lloyd.
During the proceedings F.J. Eubanks offered to donate four or five acres lying between the county’s land and the Chapel Hill-Saxapahaw-Graham highway. This would increase the school site to about 13 acres and give it a frontage on a main road.
On behalf of the land offered by Mr. Lloyd, it is urged that this being immediately at White Cross at the junction of main roads, is more accessible. But the advocates of the other site say they do not like the school to be placed so close to the eastern boundary of the township. This, they say, would be in disregard of the interests of the majority of the township’s population.
Undoubtedly the majority of those who were present Monday morning favored the site already owned by the county. Among those who spoke for it were Harmon McIver of the Bethlehem church neighborhood, G. Ed. Copeland, and C.H. Sykes.
It looked for a minute as if there were going to be a spirited dispute between he men holding opposite views about the sites, but Mr. Browning, chairman of the school board, turned the discussion into more quiet channels.
The main impression one got from the gathering was that the whole township was deeply interested in education and was determined to have a modern school. The money necessary for the building, about $15,000, is already assured from the State’s school loan fund. Mr. Browning had with him Monday his associates on the board, Mr. McDade and Mr. Efland. They said they would decide on the site at their next meeting, April 7th.
Several of the men at Monday’s gathering said that, although they felt themselves burdened by taxes, they wanted good schooling for their children and grandchildren and, to get it, were willing to be taxed still further. “It’s getting so it’s more profitable to sell your land than it is to pay taxes on it,” said Paul C. Lloyd, “but we need schools and I am willing to sell land if necessary to meet the taxes.”
E.W. Knight said that it was an encouraging sign that so many men in the township turned out to this meeting. It showed their real interest in the schools. He said that the idea was to lengthen the school term to at least 8 months.
A fine dinner was served by the women who came along with their husbands and fathers. The table was spread near a flag pole flying the Stars and Stripes.
From the front page of the Chapel Hill Weekly, March 27, 1924
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